Sterling buys Beverly Hills storefront for $23.5M

The Sterling Organization has acquired a Beverly Hills property with 4,700 square feet of prime retail space for $23.5 million on behalf of its institutional fund, The Real Deal has learned.

The sale price equates to $5,000 per square foot, a high price for the street but still less than half the record $13,217 a foot paid by Chanel for its $152 million Rodeo Drive store last year.

The building, at 315-319 North Beverly Drive, is located within Beverly Hills’ Golden Triangle, which also includes Rodeo Drive. The property, which was formerly home to the Beverly Hills Brownie Company, will be vacant by 2017, according to a statement from Sterling.

The seller was a private trust headed by Kristi and Ralph Jackson, according to PropertyShark. Justin Mendelson of Charles Dunn Company represented the buyer. Darrel Levonian and Brian Jensen of the same brokerage represented the seller. The brokers could not immediately be reached.

The only current major tenant is Australian artist Peter Lik, whose gallery occupies two of the property’s three shopfronts. His lease expires in the first quarter of next year. In 2014, Lik’s photograph “Phantom” sold for a record-breaking $6.5 million.

Sterling is a private equity real estate firm based in West Palm Beach and typically invests in retail assets such as grocery-anchored shopping centers in major markets across the United States. It currently has about 8 million square feet under management.